Quake spiritual successor Diabotical has decided to skip its open beta phase and instead has launched today. The game went live on the Epic Games Store for PC at 9 am EST.
Why has Diabotical skipped open beta?
The news comes via Diabotical's official Twitter account. Somewhat cryptically, developer The GD Studio says it doesn't want to "poke at the industry" in order to explain why the game is skipping open beta. The studio says the game is "stable, feature-packed and hopefully fun", and that the devs have a 2-year plan to support the game with the help of Epic Games and "the Arena FPS community's support".
I don't wanna poke at the industry and explain why not open beta. But Diabotical is stable, feature packed and hopefully fun! We have a 2 year dev plan thanks to Epic games and the Arena FPS communities support.
— Diabotical (@Diabotical) September 2, 2020
In a followup tweet, The GD Studio urges players to think of today's release as "the start of Season 1" of Diabotical. Improvements to the game, as well as additional content, will come as time goes on, with bigger updates also coming periodically. Season 2 of Diabotical will launch in December, according to The GD Studio. It's not yet clear what each season will bring with it in terms of content.
What's the history behind Diabotical?
Originally, Diabotical was funded via Kickstarter back in 2016 as an arena-based multiplayer competitive FPS intended to evoke the spirit of the original Quake's multiplayer modes. Developer The GD Studio is a Swedish outfit that describes itself as "an esports company turned game development studio" formerly responsible for esports talk show The GD Show. Diabotical is the studio's first title.
Earlier this year, the game underwent a closed beta phase, during which Kickstarter backers got to stress-test some of its levels and content. Skipping open beta suggests that the devs are pretty confident Diabotical is ready for prime time as it stands. Either way, you'll be able to get your hands on Diabotical...well, pretty much now. It's free-to-play, and you can download it via the Epic Games Store.
Will you be checking out Diabotical? Let us know in the comments below!
